


sleepyhead

by hexburn (thestormapproaches)



Category: League of Legends RPF
Genre: Electricity Metaphors, Extended Metaphors, Fluff, M/M, Robot Metaphors, Sleep, Sleep on Call, Sleep on Mic, Sleeping Together, Sort Of, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Tsunderes, it happened y'all, pure fluff, soft hours
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-27
Updated: 2020-06-27
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:54:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,645
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24945703
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thestormapproaches/pseuds/hexburn
Summary: Nick falls asleep and Tim, just maybe, falls in love.
Relationships: Nick "LS" De Cesare/Tim "Nemesis" Lipovšek
Comments: 10
Kudos: 31





	sleepyhead

**Author's Note:**

> *i come back with coffee and more nemesis/LS*
> 
> the sleep on mic is real! based on these two clips:  
> [from LS's Twitch, at around 3:31:40 in the VOD from June 20, clip hosted by Streamable](https://streamable.com/2zeqfn)  
> [and also from LS's Twitch, at around 6:20:00 in the VOD from June 20, clip hosted by Streamable](https://streamable.com/j3jpe5)  
> (and probably more in the past i've forgotten about)

He’s asleep.

Tim has called Nick to talk about the draft and how horribly he’s playing and to get some encouragement and another view on his own mistakes, and Nick has fallen asleep.

“Nick? You there?” Tim asks, just to be sure, and Nick answers him with a tiny snore.

It’s adorable, but Tim would never admit that to Nick. Instead, he lets the little machine of his heart whirr in his chest, full of emotions Tim doesn’t want to acknowledge or name right now.

“Come on, man,” Tim grumbles. Whether he likes the fuzzy feelings in his chest or not, they always arise when he talks to Nick, and, also whether he wanted to or not, Tim simply had to call him as soon as he was done streaming. It wasn’t a want at all, but a need.

Tim tries not to think about it too much, but right now it’s late at night and he’s stayed up so long that it’s actually hard to go to sleep now, and his mind wanders. It’s a weird feeling, lodged in his chest like a rock in his heart - more like a marble, maybe, smooth and not rough-edged or painful like a stone, or perhaps a little battery that jolts him every time he thinks about Nick or sees him on stream. A little battery that shocks him with its full voltage every time he and Nick get to talk, late at night, when Nick calls him before the start of a long day or the end of one or when he calls Nick just before he goes to sleep.

It’s a vicious little battery, pulsing through him and making his heart beat harder and his face flush pink as he watches Nick through the Discord call.

Stupid little thing.

With a sigh, Tim flops onto his bed. Luckily, he doesn’t have to make the walk home from the office right now. Mithy had sent them all home after the loss, to help them reset their mentals, but Tim knows it probably isn’t working, at least for Oskar, who is likely beating himself up over the losses instead of relaxing at all. They’ll have to talk in the morning, Tim and Oskar. For now, though, Nick is still sleeping on the call on Tim’s OnePlus.

Against his own conscious effort, Tim’s eyes drift to look at Nick again. Stupid idiot, he fell asleep with his head balanced by his cheek on his hand and his elbow on his desk, and now his head slumps lower and lower with each passing second. As Tim watches, Nick’s arm collapses down and his head drops with it, luckily landing on Nick’s folded arms rather than the hard desk.

“You’re so stupid,” Tim murmurs with a terribly fond smile and a sweet little laugh.

He catches himself smiling, though, and roughly pats his cheeks with his hands, trying to make the giddy feelings go away, but they don’t, and the little battery in his heart sends a few more overexcited pulses through him. Tim chalks it up to being sleepy.

Is it creepy to watch someone sleep if they fall asleep on call? It’s definitely creepy, right? Tim should hang up. He should just hang up and type a message and say goodnight.

For some reason, he just can’t.

Something about the way Nick looks, so sweet and innocent and peaceful now that he’s asleep, where he can’t be hurt by anyone, makes Tim want to protect him. The little battery in his heart pulses energy into him, generating a kind of determination that Tim isn’t sure what to do with, but he’s certain that staying on call is what he needs to do. Hasn’t Nick been having sleeping troubles? Maybe Tim could help? Nick has been up for so long, too.

So maybe Tim will leave the call on, just so he can tell Nick’s roommates to let him sleep while he can.

The phone stays on - it’s a OnePlus, so it has a great battery, much more powerful and less traitorous than the one in Tim’s heart, and he doesn’t need to worry about it dying - and Tim leaves it leaning against the pillow next to him. Hopefully he’ll still wake up before Nick does, so he can end the call before Nick gets too curious or notices him. 

Wait, does Discord store the length of calls? It does, doesn’t it?

Well, Tim can just say he fell asleep, too. The little battery in his heart hums, sending a weird sort of warmth through him at the thought of falling asleep with Nick, next to Nick, even if the closeness is only digital.

Tim wishes he knew where the off switch was for that stupid little battery. Still, it’s a nice kind of warmth, no matter how much Tim wishes he could shut it off for a little bit to focus on things that matter more than how adorable Nick looks and how much Tim wants to hug him and hold him.

Like a tiny heater, the warmth from the little battery fills Tim up with just the right kind of contented happiness to fall asleep to, recharging with every glance Tim takes at Nick, who is still slumped over on his desk but in a position that looks to be stable, for now. Tim smiles. It’s weird, but he can feel himself getting drowsy as he watches Nick snooze. He curls up in his own bed, eyes still on Nick.

A quiet snore and the soft sounds of Nick’s breath ease into the microphone as Nick shifts. When he resettles, the mic perfectly picks up each adorably-little sleepy whoosh.

It takes a good deal of effort, but Tim manages to suppress the urge to coo at and fawn over Nick, though another cute snore easily makes all that effort futile and Tim finds himself giggling and smiling and falling in love over Nick’s sleeping beauty.

Of course, this simply won’t do during the day - Tim will have to find a way to remain just as uncaring as he always is. But... It’s the middle of the night, and no one is watching. There’s no harm in admitting it right now.

He’s in love with Nick.

That’s the last thought on his mind before he drifts into his dreams.

When morning comes, Tim’s instinct, as always, is to reach for his phone at the corner of his bed, where he normally leaves it. But it doesn’t immediately reach his hand. Weird. He fumbles around for it blindly for a few moments before giving up and looking with his own two eyes, but it’s too late.

The phone clatters to the ground, slipping through Tim’s fingertips as he tries to snatch it out of the air. There’s thankfully no scratches Tim can see at a glance, and of course the OnePlus case on his OnePlus phone has kept it safe and sound, but-

Nick makes a sleepy noise on the other end of the still-ongoing Discord call that Tim only just now remembers, and Tim watches, horrified as Nick blearily rubs his eyes and sits up.

“Shit- sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you up. Go back to sleep,” Tim says gently, “you need it after missing so much for the past week.” Ah, if only he had remembered to be more careful! Tim knows about the insomnia Nick has been facing - they talk most nights, while Nick stays up way too late for his own good and Tim practises new builds in soloQ to stay ahead of the curve. It’s devastating, the insomnia, and it makes Tim feel awful, guilty and worried. They’ve never found themselves in these sorts of circumstances, though Tim has woken Nick up with spammed messages before. After the hellish lack of sleep Nick has gone through in the past few days, Tim deeply regrets it. The little battery in his heart chides him for it, too, with a slow and sleepy yet sad thrum.

“No, it’s okay,” Nick answers anyway. “I actually slept really well,” As Nick murmurs, his bedhead sticks up in a few rumpled spots and makes him look absolutely adorable, much to Tim’s chagrin.

Tim hopes his own hair isn’t bad. “Sleepyhead,” he murmurs with a smile - all the little battery’s fault, though, because Tim still can’t admit it to himself. Nick’s answering grin, sleepy and cute and so precious, sends such a powerful jolt through Tim’s heart that he can feel a blush rising to his cheeks, and the only solution is to grumble and clear his throat. “That’s good,” Tim says gruffly. “You need the sleep.”

With an adorable huff, Nick rolls his eyes. But he keeps smiling anyway, and Tim smiles back - it’s early in the morning, so maybe he’s not as in control of his emotions as he should be, but it’s okay. Nick would never judge him. “Yeah... this was really... it was really nice,” Nick says softly, resting his head on his arms again and blinking at the camera with still-sleepy eyes.

“Yeah, it was,” Tim agrees. Not because it felt like he was there, sleeping next to Nick, not at all, though the quickening pulses from the little battery in his heart say otherwise. It was just... a nice experience. A really, really, really nice experience.

“We could do it again sometime,” Tim suggests out of the blue, for no reason at all other than the little battery in his heart sparking him into action.

Nick’s eyes widen as though he’s just awakening, suddenly realising the gravity of the situation, and Tim nearly takes it back when-

“That would be great,” Nick answers with a shining bright smile. “Um- maybe tonight?” he says, and Tim almost shortcircuits.

He nods quickly.

The little battery in his heart throbs with a million volts at once.

**Author's Note:**

> today i'll be writing lots! so expect another KCCF chapter today or tomorrow! and another oneshot uploaded today!  
> and let me know what you thought of the fic and the little battery imagery!


End file.
